Jakarta  - Indonesia's defence minister accused Singapore of obstructing an extradition treaty because it fears it would have to hand over businessmen who sought refuge in the city-state with huge amounts of illegally gotten money, a news report said Friday.

Juwono Sudarsono also said a defence cooperation agreement with Singapore, negotiated simultaneously with the extradition pact, appeared to have collapsed as well, according to The Jakarta Post.

"They [the agreements] are frozen," Juwono told the Post.

"Singapore doesn't want this extradition arrangement because it would have to return money from corrupt individuals who ran from Indonesia along with the hot money it gets from other countries," he was quoted as saying.

Juwono estimated 80 Indonesian businessmen who fled the country with government bailout money injected into their businesses from 1999 to 2001 live in Singapore.

He said Singapore Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew told him during a meeting in Jakarta last year that it did not make any sense to return the money.

Indonesia and Singapore signed both the defence agreement and the extradition treaty in 2007, but the Indonesian House of Representatives refused to approve it, saying the terms were in favour of the neighbouring country and could compromise Indonesia's security.

Indonesia later proposed some changes to the agreements, but Singapore rejected the request, saying Jakarta had earlier agreed to the terms. (dpa)